Faculty Bibliography

Hypertension is a very common disease, and office measurements of blood pressure are frequently inaccurate. Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring (ABPM) offers a more accurate diagnosis, more detailed readings of average blood pressures, better blood pressure measurement during sleep, fewer false positives by detecting more white-coat hypertension, and fewer false negatives by detecting more masked hypertension. ABPM offers better management of clinical outcomes. For example, based on more accurate measurements of blood pressure variability, ABPM demonstrates that taking antihypertensive medication at night leads to better controlled nocturnal blood pressure, which translates into less end organ damage and fewer clinical complications of hypertension. For these reasons, albeit some shortcomings which were discussed, ABPM should be considered as a first-line tool for diagnosing and managing hypertension.

BACKGROUND: Initial serum potassium (K+) in diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) often does not reflect the true amount of total body K+ storage, and it is not a good predictor of subsequent hypokalemia. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that a deficiency of the total body K+ storage can be detected initially on surface electrocardiography (ECG). METHOD: Medical records of 350 patients with a diagnosis of DKA were reviewed. Data regarding serial basic metabolic panels, arterial blood gases, serum ketones, and total K+ replacement that patient received during admission were collected. We compared biochemical findings for patients with and without QTU corrected (QTUc) prolongation by using the t test. Patients who were taking medications known to affect QTUc or cause ST-T changes were excluded. RESULTS: After exclusion criteria, 61 patients were enrolled in this study. In 38 patients (62.9%), QTUc was more than or equal to 450 milliseconds. Patients with prolonged QTc received statistically more K+ supplementation during admission (P = .014). They also had lower serum K+ level during their hospital course (P = .002) compared to patients with normal QTUc intervals. No significant difference was found between initial serum K+, calcium, glucose, anion gap, acidosis, age, or heart rate between these 2 groups. CONCLUSION: The significant relationship between K+ depletion and the ECG changes observed in this study deserves further consideration. Our findings confirm the concept that the ECG is an easy and reliable tool for early diagnosis of hypokalemia in patients with DKA.

BACKGROUND:Three longitudinal studies of cancer incidence in varied populations of World Trade Center responders have been conducted. METHODS:We compared the design and results of the three studies. RESULTS:Separate analyses of these cohorts revealed excess cancer incidence in responders for all cancers combined and for cancers of the thyroid and prostate. Methodological dissimilarities included recruitment strategies, source of cohort members, demographic characteristics, overlap between cohorts, assessment of WTC and other occupational exposures and confounders, methods and duration of follow-up, approaches for statistical analysis, and latency analyses. CONCLUSIONS:The presence of three cohorts strengthens the effort of identifying and quantifying the cancer risk; the heterogeneity in design might increase sensitivity to the identification of cancers potentially associated with exposure. The presence and magnitude of an increased cancer risk remains to be fully elucidated. Continued long-term follow up with minimal longitudinal dropout is crucial to achieve this goal.

INTRODUCTION/BACKGROUND:Both, the renal pelvis and the ureter, are affected by developmental, reactive and neoplastic disorders, though rare in incidence. AIM/OBJECTIVE:This series of cases were analysed to study the clinicopathological characteristics of the common and comparatively rare lesions involving the renal pelvis and pelviureteric junction. MATERIALS AND METHODS/METHODS:A retrospective collection of 476 nephrectomies and pelviureteric junction resections, received over a period of 13 years from 2001 to 2013 was done. The patients' clinical details were obtained and the histopathological findings reviewed. The lesions were classified into non-neoplastic and neoplastic categories. RESULTS:Primary involvement of the renal pelvis and pelviureteric junction was seen in 105 of 476 specimens. The mean age was 54.5 years with a male to female ratio of 2.2:1. The non-neoplastic lesions accounted for 76.2% of cases with a majority being pelviureteric junction obstruction due to inflammation induced fibromuscular hypertrophy (68.6%) causing hydronephrosis. Urothelial carcinomas were encountered in 20% of the cases. A majority of the urothelial carcinomas were infiltrative (81%) and high grade (71%) tumours. CONCLUSION/CONCLUSIONS:Renal pelvis, a conduit to propel urine, can be the site for numerous disorders. Non-neoplastic lesions were more common than neoplasms. Pelviureteric junction obstruction due to inflammation induced fibromuscular hypertrophy was the commonest lesion in our study. In the neoplastic category, urothelial carcinoma was most common. However, rare lesions such as hamartomatous fibroepithelial polyp, Von Brunn's nests, flat urothelial hyperplasia and intramuscular haemangioma of upper ureter at the pelviureteric junction were encountered along with occasional cases of tuberculosis and squamous cell carcinomas.

Kidney transplantation significantly improves patient survival, and is the most cost effective renal replacement option compared with dialysis therapy. Living kidney donors provide a valuable societal gift, but face many formidable disincentive barriers that include not only short- and long-term health risks, but also concerns regarding financial expenditures and health insurance. Other than governmental coverage for their medical evaluation and surgical expenses, donors are often asked to personally bear a significant financial responsibility due to lost work wages and travel expenses. In order to alleviate this economic burden for donors, we advocate for the consideration of tax credits, lifelong health insurance coverage, and an outcomes registry as societal reciprocity to reward their altruistic act of kidney donation.

The sensitivity of a K39 ELISA (Leishmania IgG, Virion/Serion) for the detection of antibodies in patients with imported leishmaniasis was compared with an immunofluorescence assay (IFA), which was applied as "golden standard". The retrospective study comprised 93 IFA-positive or borderline sera from 42 patients with visceral (n = 16) or cutaneous (n = 26) leishmaniasis. Patients had acquired infection predominately in the Mediterranean area or the Middle East. The Leishmania species (Leishmania donovani/infantum, Leishmania tropica, Leishmania major) were identified by real-time PCR. The majority (94%) of first samples from patients with visceral leishmaniasis (VL) tested positive by K39 ELISA. Antibody levels ranged from low to very high (33.19-1990.00 U/ml; median 596.66 U/ml) but did not correlate with the respective IFA titers. High K39 ELISA values correlated with acute infection in immunocompetent individuals. K39 antibodies declined in all individuals after clinically successful therapy, but time to seronegativity varied considerably (51 weeks to >6 years). In patients with cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL), the sensitivity of the K39 ELISA was low (23%) compared to IFA (92% positive). Antibody levels ranged from low to medium (10.85-524.77 U/ml; median 19.77 U/ml). The highest antibody concentrations were seen in L. infantum-infected individuals. Summarizing, a high K39 ELISA value indicates active VL. The assay is, like IFA, not a measure for effective therapy but may support post-treatment monitoring. Low level positivity can indicate subclinical, previous or clinically cured VL or even CL. The K39 ELISA can supplement highly sensitive screening tests in the diagnosis and follow-up of imported leishmaniasis.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationship of skeletal muscle FNDC5 mRNA expression and circulating irisin to the GH/IGF-I axis and to skeletal muscle mitochondrial function and mitochondria-related gene expression in obese men. DESIGN: Fifteen abdominally obese men with reduced growth hormone received 12weeks of recombinant human GH (rhGH). Before and after treatment, they underwent (31)P-magnetic resonance spectroscopy to evaluate phosphocreatine (PCr) recovery as a measure of mitochondrial function and skeletal muscle biopsy to assess expression of mitochondrial-related genes. Serum irisin and IGF-I and skeletal muscle FNDC5 and IGF-I mRNA were measured. RESULTS: At baseline, skeletal muscle FNDC5 mRNA was significantly and positively associated with IGF-I mRNA (rho=0.81, P=0.005) and rate of PCr recovery (rho=0.79, P=0.006). Similar relationships of circulating irisin to IGF-I mRNA (rho=0.63, P=0.05) and rate of PCr recovery (rho=0.48, P=0.08) were demonstrated, but were not as robust as those with muscle FNDC5 expression. Both serum irisin and skeletal muscle FNDC5 mRNA were significantly associated with PPARgamma (rho=0.73, P=0.02 and rho=0.85, P=0.002), respectively. In addition, FNDC5 mRNA was correlated with skeletal muscle PGC-1alpha (rho=0.68, P=0.03), NRF1 (rho=0.66, P=0.04) and TFAM (rho=0.79, P=0.007) mRNA. Neither serum irisin nor muscle mRNA expression of FNDC5 changed with rhGH treatment. CONCLUSION: These novel data in skeletal muscle demonstrate that local expression of FNDC5 is associated with mRNA expression of IGF-I and mitochondrial function and mitochondria-related gene expression in obese subjects with reduced growth hormone and suggest a potential role for FNDC5 acting locally in muscle in a low GH state. Further studies are needed to clarify the relationship between the GH/IGF-I axis and irisin.

PURPOSE: To decrease overutilization of laboratory testing by eliminating a feature of the electronic ordering system that allowed providers to order laboratory tests to occur daily without review. METHODS: We collected rates of utilization of a group of commonly ordered laboratory tests (number of tests per patient per day) throughout the entire hospital from June 10th, 2013 through June 10th, 2015. Our intervention which eliminated the ability to order daily recurring tests was implemented on June 11th, 2014. We compared pre and post-intervention rates in order to assess the impact and surveyed providers about their experience with the intervention. RESULTS: We examined 1,296,742 laboratory tests performed on 92,799 unique patients over 434,059 patient days. Prior to the intervention, the target tests were ordered using this daily recurring mechanism 33% of the time. After the intervention we observed between an 8.5% (p <0.001) to 20.9% (p <0.001) reduction in tests per patient per day. The reduction in rate for some of the target tests persisted during the study period but not for the two most commonly ordered tests. We estimated an approximate reduction in hospital costs of $300,000 due to the intervention. CONCLUSION: A simple modification to the order entry system significantly and immediately altered provider practices throughout a large tertiary care academic center. This strategy is replicable by the many hospitals that use the same electronic health record system and possibly by users of other systems. Future areas of study include evaluating the additive effects of education and real-time decision support.